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# Surviving the Crusades

#### by Mark D F Shirley

The copyright of this article remains with the original author. Articles may be copied or distributed freely for personal non-profit use, provided that the author is properly credited.

The time of the 'official' Ars Magica setting is the age of crusades. At this point, four crusades have alreay occured - the First Crusade (started 1095), the Second Crusade (started 1144), the Third Crusade (started 1187) and the Fourth Crusade (started 1202) - the Fifth is in progress (started 1215) and the Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth are well within the lifetime of player characters. On top of this there is the Albigensian Crusade, which occurs in the Languedoc, the setting for many published Ars Magica stories, plus the crusade against the Mongols and the Reconquista.

With all of this going on it is inevitable that those playing noble characters will either be called up for military service, or volunteer to gain Absolution from sin and/or the fabulous riches of the Holy Land. The rules presented here allow such characters to slip out of game play and go off to fight in the Crusades, and then return once the crusade is over with realistic changes to the character, representing the fighting and experience that they might have gained. This mechnic can also be used to mimic any character who goes off to fight in any war that the storyguide doesn't want have to deal with separately.

Add up:

- All characteristics
- Protection bonus of armour worn
- Main Weapon Skill
- 3 per advantageous Virtue: Knack with weapon, Berserk, Enduring Constitution, Good Armaments, Inspirational, Large, Long Winded, Rapid Convalescence, Tough, Veteran, Lightning Reflexes, Reserves of Strength.
- 5 per highly advantageous Virtue: Giant Blood, Superior Armaments, Charmed Life, Highly Trained, Guardian Angel, True Faith, Relic, Ghostly Warder, Quality Armaments

  Subtract:

- 1 for every year over twenty
- 1 per point of Affliction
- 3 per Decrepitude Point possessed
- 3 per disadvantageous Flaw: Green, Fragile Constitution, Low Self-Esteem, Missing Eye, Obese, Poor Armaments, Poor Sight, Weak-Willed, Haunted, Hunchback, Lame, Missing Hand, Overconfident, Small Frame
- 5 per highly disadvantageous Flaw: Arthritis, Fury, Dwarf, Plagued by Supernatural Entity

  Additional modifers can be applied by the storyguide, as he sees fit. For example, on the Fourth Crusade, it was very easy to become rich, so one's Greed personality trait might have been a bonus to the roll. Only the pious actually made it to the Holy Land and got involved in the Fighting, thus a Pious Personality trait might subtract from the roll.

  Once the modifier has been worked out, apply it to the result of a stress die, and compare the result to the table below:

          Roll      Result

          Botch     The character dies

           0-3      The character suffers a major wound. This might result in
                    a flaw such as Blind or Enfeebled, or a missing limb, or
                    losing up to five points from one or more characteristics

           4-5      The character suffers from psychological problems brought
                    about by the  bloodshed he has seen. He might gain the
                    Fury, Terrors or Common Fear flaw, or gain a Bad
                    Reputation and level 3. He probably suffers a change in
                    personality traits.

           6-8      The character suffers a serious wound. They might gain
                    the Deaf, Lame or Missing Hand flaw, gain a Decrepitude
                    point from a badly healed wound., or suffer the loss of 3
                    or more points of characteristics

          9-10      The character suffers minor psychological damage, gaining
                    a flaw such as Simple-Minded, Uncommon Fear, Obsession or
                    Bad Reputation (at level 1). He probably suffers a change
                    in personality traits.

          10-14     The character gains some minor persistant wound. This
                    might result n a flaw such as Poor Eyesight, Poor
                    Hearing, Missing Eye or Missing Foot, or take a -1 to any
                    characteristic.

          14-18     No effect

          19-22     The character's heroic deeds give him either a good
                    Reputation at rating 1, or an Experience Point in Piety
                    (if these rules are used)

          23-26     The character's deeds give him either: a point of
                    Confidence, treasure amounting to 10-50 pounds of silver,
                    or 3 Piety Experience Points. He also gains a good
                    Reputation at rating 1

          27-29     The character's deeds give him either: a point of
                    Confidence, treasure amounting to 50-100 pounds of
                    silver, or 6 Piety Experience Points. He also gains a
                    good Reputation at rating 2

          30-32     The character's deeds give him either: 2 points of
                    Confidence, treasure amounting to 100-300 pounds of
                    silver, or 10 Piety Experience Points. He also gains a
                    good Reputation at rating 3

           33+      The character's deeds give him either a minor title
                    (Landed Knight), treasure amounting to 500 pounds of
                    silver, a magic item (if deemed appropriate) or a point
                    of True Faith (if already a pious man), or a Relic with a
                    point of Faith. He also gains a good Reputation at rating
                    3

  In addition, every character gains a simple die of experience points for evey year spent crusading. These can be spent on any abilities that the storyguide approves, most usually combat and Leadership skills.

  Make a roll for every year that the character is on crusade, subtracting 3 from every roll after the first. When applying these effects, be aware that some are not cumulative (two lucky rolls of 33+ should NOT give two points of True Faith!). Encourage the player to use the results of these rolls to come up with a short story of what happened to him while he was away, using the results of this system as a guide. Other effects are possible, at the discretion of the storyguide.